


Batfamily Scars

by CloakedSparrow



Series: Collected Bat-Family Stories [29]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Children, Bat Family, Gen, No Romance, No Smut, One Shot, Scars, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 22:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15129242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedSparrow/pseuds/CloakedSparrow
Summary: Moonlighting as a vigilante came with no small number of challenges. Explaining where your time and money went. Explaining injuries and absences for yourself and your children. Explaining how you came about adopting said children. Explaining other relationships, like how a born and raised Gothamite billionaire knew a Metropolis reporter originally from Kansas.It also meant you gathered a fair number of scars that you had to explain occasionally.





	Batfamily Scars

Moonlighting as a vigilante came with no small number of challenges. Explaining where your time and money went. Explaining injuries and absences for yourself and your children. Explaining how you came about adopting said children. Explaining other relationships, like how a born and raised Gothamite billionaire knew a Metropolis reporter originally from Kansas. 

Most of those questions only required a one and done explanation. Once Bruce Wayne explained that he’d met Clark Kent while attending a game with his eldest son that the reporter was covering, no further explanation was needed. Friendships are built from such happen-stance meetings all the time. Once he said he’d been out of town for the weekend because he was skiing with his kids, that was it. A rich man taking his children on vacation to some exotic resort was hardly newsworthy. Once he told his son’s teachers that the child broke his ankle while they were cycling through Italy, the questions changed from ‘what happened’ to ‘how was your trip?’. After all, such things happen.

Scars, however, tended to be another matter. They were permanent. Unlike the other wounds one might be asked about, they didn’t go away in three to six weeks only to be soon forgotten entirely. They didn’t fade from people’s minds so quickly either. 

A bruise, even a serious one, could be easily dismissed. People tripped, they bumped into things, they had objects and other people fall onto or bump into them. Scrapes were the same. Broken bones were a little more noticeable, but still, well within the realm of damage that normal people got themselves into. Scars tended to mean something more serious had happened. One or two small ones were easily ignored but a particularly nasty one, an unusual one, or many small ones spread over a body tended to make one take notice. It tended to make one really want to know what had happened. It made even civilized people put aside their manners and ask virtual or literal strangers after the marks.

Fortunately, when Bruce was training to be Batman, he was believed to be travelling the world. Just a privileged and wealthy young man out finding himself and having the sort of adventures that only such men can have. This gave him an endless vault of false experiences to pull from whenever someone saw a scar (or a few) and asked after it. 

“I got that one base jumping in Peru. I should have been keeping my sights on my landing instead of the cute girl waiting for me.” 

“That’s from the time I was on Safari. You know, koalas are a lot more dangerous than they look. If you ever see one, _don’t_ try to take a selfie.” 

“I was skiing in Switzerland and missed the ramp at the end of a jump. I think my ego was injured worse than my leg though.” 

“Dick fell out of a chandelier and I broke his fall. Kids, right? That’s how the ‘no hanging on anything not designed for you to hang off of’ rule was made. Yeah, we have some _very_ unique rules at the Manor.” 

“I got that one riding a camel in Egypt. They’re a much more challenging ride than they appear in the movies.” 

“That’s from the time I went hang-gliding in Brazil. Totally worth it. If you ever have the chance, do it. You won’t regret it.”

“That’s when I caught a kid trying to steel the tires from my Lamborghini. The little brat bit me and then hit me with a tire iron. I adopted him two months later. There he is now. Jason, come say hello to my new friend...”

“I was shark diving off the coast of Africa. Its not nearly as thrilling a story as it looks.”

“I thought it would be fun to take the kids white water rafting. It was. Even after we flipped the raft and hit those rocks. Scared the hell out of me when Tim took so long to surface though...”

“That’s from when I crashed the Lamborghini. Its still hard to talk about. I really liked that car, but I guess that was the powers that be telling me to take it easy with the fast cars now that I have kids.”

The more outlandish the story, the more his audience accepted it. True, most thought he was embellishing at least a little. In fact, if anyone compared notes and discovered they hadn’t been told quite the same story, that just cemented the idea that he was playing it up. Even if they believed it was an outright lie, they assumed he was covering a boring or embarrassing story. People do that all the time.

No one thought it had anything to do with dressing up as a giant bat, breaking and entering, interfering with police investigations, and beating up criminals nearly every night. 

Bruce thought it might be a little more complicated when each of his kids started collecting scars, but it turned out not to be a problem either. 

Dick had surprisingly few scars, considering how long he’d been serving as Robin and then Nightwing. Not to mention, his time with the circus before Bruce ever met him. Fortunately, a former circus child who retained his fondness for aerial gymnastics - _and_ who had a father who took him to do things like spelunking and hang-gliding once he was old enough- had a ready made excuse built in. Dick also had other...assets...that tended to draw one’s gaze if they saw him in minimal clothing. All in all, he never had a problem explaining his scars either.

Jason never scarred easily. The scars he did have healed when he was brought back by the Lazarus Pit. Since then, he hadn’t acquired any new ones. The family wasn’t sure if that was because he simply hadn’t been injured seriously enough to have any or if the Pit prevented him from scarring. Sometimes, Bruce wished his son still had some scars. Not that he wanted him injured, _ever_ , or that he wanted him to have the burden of hiding or explaining them. He just thought maybe Jason would be more careful if he had reminders of the times when things hadn’t gone according to plan. 

Cassandra didn’t have many scars, but those she did were an immediate cause for concern. Several bullet wounds graced her pale skin, from when her first father had taught her not to flinch. Cassandra never put much effort into hiding them. Her clothes normally covered them and if a tank top or crop top did reveal any, she normally just stared at the asker until they realized it was incredibly rude to ask a near stranger after their scars. Especially when they were a clear sign of a violent experience. 

Cassandra had actually discovered this method of approach on accident. The first time she was asked about the scars was when a visiting matron of the arts looking for a donation had seen her at the Manor after she got home from working out with Barbara. Cassandra still hadn’t been that good with language, and had simply stared at the woman blankly while she tried to figure out why she sounded shocked or looked scandalized. The woman assumed the girl was waiting for her to realize how rude she’d been and apologized before changing the subject. It became her go-to response after that. 

If her father or one of her brothers were asked, they would say she had been collateral damage in a drive by shooting when she was a small child. Dick always said it with a measure of assurance, as if it were understandable that they were worried, but also asked them not to bring it up in front of his sister. Jason always fixed them with a glare afterwards and asked if they were happy to bring up a childhood trauma to appease their curiosity. Tim always made a comment that ‘we aren’t usually asked after them in polite company’ as he explained, which was usually enough to shame the person into ending the discussion once they received the base answer. Damian simply scowled and either told them it was none of their business or simply told them to fuck off, depending on where they were and how bad of a mood he was already in. 

Tim had the most scars of the lot, and the fairest skin, so they tended to stand out more. Fortunately, no one outside the family or his closest friends (who knew about his secret identity) saw him in less than jeans and a t-shirt, which covered most of his scars. The ones he normally had to worry about being spotted were the stab wounds and surgical scars from the spleen incident, since they became visible if his shirt raised enough to show skin. Most people couldn’t see the different between a well executed stab wound and a surgical scar, so if asked, he just said they were from surgery. If pressed, he mentioned an assassination attempt after he’d taken over Wayne Enterprises and said he preferred not to talk about it. 

There was also a story about him being abducted for ransom when he was a small child. No one in the family knew how that one had spread, but they kept it in mind if anyone saw his other scars. In reality, Tim had been taken with minimal fuss by his then-nanny, who was working with the kidnappers. The fools had locked the gifted child in a room with an electronic lock and he’d gotten himself out within half an hour. He’d been picked up by the cops when he was trying to figure out how to get home from downtown Gotham by following landmarks he’d seen while watching or reading news about Batman and Robin. 

Damian didn’t scar easily and he didn’t have very many. Those he did weren’t enough to draw attention, even if anyone saw them. They just assumed they were the usual incidents that happen during childhood. Especially when your father is Bruce Wayne and family vacations include activities like camel racing, going on safari, and a summer-long yacht trip. And when your oldest brother is a former circus performer whom you appear to idolize and might try to emulate. 

If he does end up with any significant scarring, Damian plans to respond to questions about them the same way he responds when asked about his sister’s scars. His brothers have already made it clear they aren’t going to fight him on that. In fact, they plan to use his response to explain that they don’t talk about it since it bothers him and leave the asker feeling bad about asking after the scars to begin with. It isn’t how Bruce would have decided to handle it on his own, but he has to admit, that will work. And it will be better if the family has the same response. 

Alfred has a few scars as well. Most don’t ever see them. If someone does, he simply reminds them that he was MI6 and says “I’m afraid that’s classified.” 

This has caused some people to joke that the family butler is the most badass member of the Wayne family. The Waynes themselves don’t consider it a joke. They’ve never doubted the fact that Alfred’s a badass; the biggest one each of them has ever known.

**Author's Note:**

> Question for the regular readers of this series: how would you feel about a couple short chapter fics (we aren't talking novels here) being added to the mix? I'm almost finished with one and now have to decide if I should post it as part of the series or a separate piece since it isn't quite the usual quick read most of these stories are.


End file.
